Katherine Heigl Files $6 Million Lawsuit Over A Tweet

The line between paying someone to advertise a product and casually mentioning they’re a customer has gotten a whole lot blurrier thanks to social media. Famous faces are followed around almost constantly now, and as a result, there are pictures floating around of them doing things like eating Pinkberry and shopping at Target. Do companies draw attention to these pictures? Do they just ignore them? It’s a grey area, but now, thanks to a new lawsuit, companies and celebrities may finally get some clarity.

Back in March, popular pharmacy Duane Reade tweeted out a picture of Katherine Heigl with one of the company’s bags alongside the caption “Love a quick #DuaneReade run? Even @KatieHeigl can’t resist shopping #NYC’s favorite drugstore.” Whoever handles the social media account likely thought the comment was innocuous enough, but Heigl did not feel the same way. According to TMZ, she just filed a six million dollar lawsuit, apparently because she thinks she should have been paid for having her image tweeted, even though she doesn’t own the picture.

Katherine Heigl has never been considered the most go with the flow actress. There was that time she removed her name from Emmy consideration. There was that time she complained about Knocked Up for supposedly having a sexist agenda. There was that time she couldn’t decide whether or not to leave Grey’s Anatomy, ultimately deciding to come back and then abruptly asking to be let out of her contract. So, let’s just say this situation won’t do a whole lot to change her reputation.

Tweeting out pictures of random celebrities is very common in the fashion industry. Recently, the practice got some press after Valentino discussed what Amy Adams wore to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s funeral. At the time, however, that was considered more of an issue of taste and timing than it was a violation of her rights.

If Heigl wins the lawsuit, she claims she’ll donate the money to charity. We’ll keep you updated.